The Horse-hreeding Industry in Yorkshire. 89 



then a high i)i"ice for a hunter sire — anil never regretted it. 

 He sired the sountlest of stock, and got good-tempered and high- 

 couraged produce. There were, at one time, fifty-two of his 

 stock on the place, and as many as twenty hunters sired by him 

 in the hunt staliles at the some moment. Red Eagle by Thurio 

 was twelve years old when he came to the Birdsall stud, and 

 completed eight seasons here. He got some of the best of 

 hunters, and his produce have been very successful in the 

 show-ring. The leading sire now is the well-known Wales, 

 a great favourite with his owner. He is Irish bred by Belgrave, 

 and has won under both rules in Ireland and this country. 

 Standing 16'1 hands, of great power, short-legged, and with 

 plenty of bone and substance and grand quarters, this 

 chestnut represents a typical hunter sire. He has left his mark 

 in the district in unmistakable fashion, and a good many of his 

 stock have taken high show-ring honours. His get have won 

 the produce prize for groups of three by one sire at the 

 Hunters' Improvement Society's Show on four occasions, while 

 he himself gained a King's premium four years running. The 

 other thoroughljred stallions in use at the stud at present are 

 Proadridge by Pride, One Away by Bapollo, and Stickup by 

 Collar. Wales stands at home at three guineas to tenant 

 farmers' half-bred mares ; the others are travelled at a fee 

 of two guineas, the rounds extending up to Kirby Moorside 

 and Pickering in the North Riding, Sherburn way in the 

 West Riding, and as far as Foxholes and Ganton in East 

 Yorkshire. 



The hunter brood mares at Birdsall, numbering some 

 twenty-five, comprise, among others, the descendants of nine 

 foundation mares found in the stud in the eighth Lord 

 Middleton's time. These were Shepherdess, Magic, Louisa, 

 Violet, Dinah, Magpie, Queen Bee, Fannie, and Lavinia, 

 by which names the diff:erent strains descended from 

 them still continue to be known. The Shepherdess family 

 is reckoned one of the best lines of blood, and is now 

 represented by the mare Scornful by Gordon, and her two 

 daughters. Scruple and Scalpay. The original Shepherdess, 

 foaled 1853, was by Maroon, and came of old Yorkshire breed, 

 her dam's sire having been the half-l)red Revolution, a noted 

 hunter sire in the county in the thirties of last century. 

 Magic by MacOrville, and bought from Henry Darley, of 

 Aldljy Park, was descended from an old-time Chapman mare. 

 It is on a daughter of hers, Magic the Second, that the eighth 

 Lord Middleton is seen mounted in the hunt presentation 

 picture at Birdsall. The Magics all turn out wonderfully 

 good jumpers. Louisa was a thoi-oughbred mare by Pompey 

 out of Jill by Touchstone. A descendant of hers, the filly 



